Elevator-car-door safety device.



s. BISCBGLIA.

BLBVATOR GAR DOOR SAFETY DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 9, 1910.

992,153. Patented May 16, 1911.

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S. BISGEGLIA.

BLEVATOR CAR DooR SAFETY DEVIoE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 0. 1910.

Patented May 16, 1911.

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SALVATORE .'BISCEGLIA, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF T0 LEEN.

ELKAN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

ELEVATOR-CAR-DOOR SAFETY DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 16, 1911.

Application filed May 9, 1910. Serial No. 560,331.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SALVATORE BIsonGLIA, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Elevator-Car-Door SafetyDevices, of which the following is a specilication, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

The purpose of this invention is to provide an improved apparatusadapted to prevent the opening of elevator car doors except when the caris within safe proximity to a floor, and also preventing the car frombeing started away from the floor except when the door is safely closed.

-It consists in the elements and features of construction shown anddescribed as indicated in the claims.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a vertical section of an elevator carequipped with this device looking toward the side of the car in whichthe door is situated. Fig. 2 is a section at the line 2 2 on Fig. 1,upon a larger scale than said Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a section at the line 33 on Fig. 1, upon the same scale as Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a section at theline 4.-4 on Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a section at the line 5--5 on Fig. 1.Fig. G is a section at the line 6-6 on Fig. 2. Fig. 7 is a sideelevation of a device for transmitting the lever-locking movement whenthe operating lever is at a different side of the car from that at whichthe door is situated. Fig. is a plan view of the parts shown in Fig.

In the drawings, 1, represents the wall of the car, 2, the ceiling; 3,one of the doors of the elevator shaft of which one is provided at eachfloor or landing, 4, the controlling lever, 5, the segment past whichthe controlling lever swings and at the middle notch of which it isengaged for holding the ear at the position of rest. The expedient forpreventing the car from being started away from the position of restexceptwhen the door is safely closed, or nearly so, consists in theprovision of a device for engaging the controlling lever, 4, to lock itat its neutral position, that is the position of rest, by the first andvery short movement of the door in opening, and holding it so lockedthroughout the remainder of the opening movement of the door and untilthe same is closed past the point of safety. The devices for thispurpose comprise a cam bar, 7, which is mounted on the top of the door,having a cam terminal, 7, which at closed position, stands close to anabutment, which is preferably a roll, 8, a few inches in length,journaled in a carrier, 8, mounted upon the top of the car with capacityfor short movement toward and from the plane ofthe door and connected tothe upper end of a lever, 9, which by means of a second lever, 9, (bothlevers being fulcrumed upon the center side of the car,) operates aguard, 10, mounted in the side of the car, having a recess or notch, 10,positioned for engaging the controlling lever, 4L, when said guard isthrust inward, the inward thrust being caused by the encounter of thesaid cam end, 7, of the bar, 7, with the abutment, 8a. The parts may beproportioned and positioned so that upon such encounter suflicienttravel of the cam end on to the abutment, to move the guard then intolever locking position shall occur in the first two or three inches ofopening movement of the door. Such encounter having occurred, the cambar, 7, which beyond said cam end is parallel with the plane of the doorand its path of movement, remains beariner against said abutment roll,8, and so holds the operating lever locked until the door is returnedpast the nearly closed position at which the lever-locking encounter ofthe cam end of the abutment occurs.

For adapting the device to be applied to elevator cars of diferentheights, having doors of different widths, involving a different amountof movement in opening and closing, the bar, 7, is preferably made oftwo telescoping members, as seen in Fig. 5, and the levers, 9, and 9,are similarly made of telescoping members, as seen in Fig. 2. Forpositioning and guiding the carrier, 8, and the abutment, 8a, thereon,accurately for the proper encounter therewith of the cam end, 7 a, ofthe bar, 7 ,there is mounted at the top of the elevator car a bracket,12, having guide bearings, 12, into which studs, 8b, which project fromthe side of the carrier, 8, above and below the abutment roll, 8, extendand are thrust by the movement which is communicated to said abutment byencounter of the cam end, 7a, therewith, a spring, 141, being interposedbetween the bracket, 12, and the lever, 8, which operates to hold theabutment, 8a, outward into the of the car instead of the front, that isuponV the side of the car at right angles to that at which the door islocated, there may be mounted at the top of the car, on a standard,

26, a bell crank lever, 27, one arm of which may be engaged by anelongated guide stud,

' 8b, which is in that case provided for extending through the lowerbearing in the bracket 12, the other arm of the bell crank lever' beingconnected by a thrust bar, 28, with the upper end of the lever, 9, whichin that case is positioned on the side of the car at right angles fromthat at which the door is located.

For the purpose of preventing the elevator car door from being openedexcept when the car is at or in safe proximity to a floor, there isprovided a bolt, 13, carried upon the lever, 14, fulcrumed at 15, uponthe edge of the car door, and provided with a spring, 16, tending tothrow the bolt into a housing, 17, mounted on an upright, 18, of theelevator shaft. The lever, 14, carries an abutment preferably in theform of a somewhat elongated roll, 19, which is positioned for encounterwith the cam end, 20a, of a bar, 20, mounted upon the outer side of theelevator cage, when the car is at a ioor or within a short distancetherefrom, determinedV by half the length of the abutment, 19. If forexample it is desired to prevent the car door from being opened when thecar is more than 3 inches away from the floor, the abutment roll, 19,being 6 inches long and positioned so that the cam end, 20a, of the bar,20, will strike at the middle of the length of the roll when the car isexactly at the floor, a travel of the car more than 3 inches away fromthe floor in either direction will carry .the bar, 20, above or belowthe abutment roll so that it will not encounter the bar upon movement ofthe door for opening. The aperture 17 a in the housing, 17, for thebolt, 13, is horizontally elongated enough to permit the amount ofmovement -of the door necessary for the abutment, 19, to ride onto thecam end, 20a, of the bar, 20, for which purpose a very short movementnot exceeding 2 inches is sufficient; and the cam end, 20a, of the bar,20, is sufficientlyabrupt to cause the bolt, 13, to be withdrawn fromthe housing during opening movement of the door not greater than theelongation of saidaperture. From this construction it .will be seen thatif the car has traveled up or down past the floor far enough to take thebar, 20, out of the y path of the abutmentkroll, 19, the movement of thedoor for opening to the distance to which it can move, that is thelength of the aperture, 17 a, in excess of the diameter of the bolt isnot sufficient for opening it, and the bolt will prevent further openingmovement to lock by its said bolt.

It will be observed'that the means for locking the controlling lever atneutral position when the door is opened, cooperates with Vthe means forpreventing the door from being opened, except at or near a floor; inthat, since the only condition under which the controlling lever can bemoved from neu*- tral position, is that the door is closed, Aand theonly condition under which the door can be opened, is that it is at orsafely near a floor, it follows that the door can not be opened whilethe elevator is moving between floors and that lthe elevator can notmove from floor to floor while the door is open. Vhen the controllinglever is provided with the customary guard shown at 5, in front of saidlever, preventing it from being swung outward or forced away from thecar wall, the extension of the guard, 10, back of the entire path ofswing of the controlling lever and close thereto, yields another result,namely, that the door can not be opened even while the car without beingstopped is moving past the Hoor; because however quickly the slidingmovement of the door might be attempted to be made, so as to be edectedwhile the car is passing the door and the abutment roll, 19, is inposition to encounter the cam end, 20a, for unlocking the door, suchopening movement could not be made because the cam end, 7a, of the bar,7, encountering the abutment, 8a, would effectually lock the dooragainst further opening because said abutment, Sa, would be preventedfrom allowing the encounter of the cam by the guard, 10, which would bestopped against the controlling lever because of the latter not being atneutral position. The two devices therefore while each performing thesespecific functions, for which they are primarily designed, coperate witheach other to prevent any but safe opening of the door.

The bar,` 20, is preferably provided with a stop, 20D, at its outer end,to check the opening movement. of the doorat proper posi.-

tion; and since it may often happen that the dimension of the elevatorcage in the direction to which the door slides is less than twice thefull opening movement of the door so that in opening fully the door mustslide beyond and prot-rude at one side `past the shaft, the bar, 20, ispreferably not only tele,- scoped, but constructed so that it may beextended in such opening movement of the i,

door while still affording the stop to limit said opening movement; thisbeing eected as seen in Fig. 4, by connecting the two telescopingmembers by a coiled spring, 24,

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coiled within one and around the other of said members, the inner memberbeing the one which carries the stop, 201, so that the door inencountering the stop will extend the bar as far as the door shouldslide, but can not escape, the stop being returned to a point Within thedimension of the shaft by the reaction of the spring when the door isclosed.

I claim:

l. An elevator car door safety device comprising in combination with apower controlling lever on the car, a device for locking such lever atneutral position, means mounted on the car door for actuating theleverlocking device by the initial opening movement of the door, suchmeans being positioned and extended for encounter for such actuationonly when the car is at a predetermined distance from the floor;cooperating means carried by the door and the elevator shaft for lockingthe door at closed position adapted to permit a slight initial openingmovement of the door without unlocking and means carried by the carpositioned for encounter with the door-carried door locking means insuch short initial opening movement of t-he door, the said door-carriedmeans being extended vertically for such encounter a distancecorresponding to the predetermined distance from a floor within whichthe power-controlling lever may be moved from neutral position.

2. An elevator car door safety appliance comprising in combination withthe shaft and door provided with coperating devices for locking the doorat closed position adapted to permit slight initial opening movementwithout unlocking, a member carried by the car positioned and extendedfor encounter with the door-carried member of the door-locking means forreleasing the same when the car is within a predetermined distance froma floor.

3. A structure for the purpose indicated comprising in combination theelevator shaft and car door, door locking means comprising coperatingmembers on the door and shaft respectively, and means on the doorconsisting of a lever which carries an abutment, and a cam bar mountedon the car ositioned for encounter with the abutment by a short initialopening movement of the door while the car is opposite the latter, saidcam bar being adapted upon such encounter during such short initialopening movement of the door to disengage the door locking device.

4. A structure for the purpose indicated comprising in combination theelevator shaft and car door, door locking means comprising coperatingmembers on the door and shaft respectively, and means on the doorconsisting of a lever which carries an abutment vand a cam-bar mountedon the car positioned for encounter with the abutment by a short initialopening movement of the door while the car is opposite the latter; saidcam bar being adapted upon such encounter during such short initialopening movement of the door to disengage the door locking device, and aspring for holding the said locking devices normally engaged.

5. In a structure for the purpose indicated, in combination with theshaft, the ear, the car door, a levell fulcrumed on the edge of thedoor; a bolt carried by one end of the lever; a housing for the boltmounted on the shaft having the bolt engaging aperture horizontallyelongated to permit short opening movement ot' the door while the boltis engaged; a spring operating to hold the bolt in the housing; anabutment on the end of the lever opposite that at which the bolt ismounted, and a cam carried by the ear mounted thereon in position to bein the path of the abutment; said abutment being elongated verticallyfor collision with the cam when the car is within a predetermineddistance either way from a floor.

6. In combination with a car, car door, elevator shaft and a powercontrolling lever mounted in the car, means on the car door and carcooperating for locking the controlling lever in neutral position uponthe opening of the car door, means on the door and shaft coperating forlocking the car door with a short range of movement from closedposition, and means on the car positioned for encounter of the doorlocking element on the door in the said short range of opening movementwhen the car is at or within a predetermined distance of the floor.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of twowitnesses, at Chicago, Illinois, this 5th day of May, 1910.

SALVATORE BISCEGLIA.

IVitnesses:

CHAS. S. BURTON, C. J. CHRISTOFFEL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

